La Iglesia Que Migra

Father Brian Strassburger and Father Flavio Bravo discuss the Jesuits' efforts on behalf of migrants in the Rio Grande Valley with artist and anthropologist Cinthya Santos Briones

In this episode of OPTalks Father Brian Strassburger and Father Flavio Bravo converse with artist and anthropologist Cinthya Santos Briones about the Jesuits’ efforts on behalf of migrants in the Rio Grande Valley, what it means to acompañar migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border, and why they see themselves as an itinerant group as they work with migrants on both sides of the frontera.

In 2021, a small mobile team of Jesuit priests arrived in Brownsville, Texas, where they started Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries to work with migrants on both sides of the Rio Grande, including migrant shelters in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

In describing their purpose, Fr. Strassburger explains, “We feel this call to go to the margins of society where people are most excluded or ignored or underappreciated or underserved and we certainly see that that is a truth and reality here on the U.S. Mexico border, especially when you see the conditions of migrants camps and shelters on the Mexican side of the border.”

This episode is part of the Faith and Flight: Latinx Migration in the Art of Belief project, based at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Educational Center and made possible through a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.